Petar Relić (Serbian Cyrillic: Петар Релић; 1939–2005), nicknamed Saka, was a politician in Serbia. He was a member of the Assembly of Vojvodina from 1993 to 2004 and served as secretary of the Sombor municipal assembly. For most of his time as an elected official, Relić was a member of the Democratic Party (Demokratska stranka, DS). Late in his life, he was implicated in a significant financial scandal in Sombor.

Private career

Relić held a Bachelor of Laws degree.[1]

Politician

Relić ran for Sombor's first constituency seat in the 1990 Serbian parliamentary election as an independent candidate and was defeated by Josip Subotić of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS). He was later elected to the Vojvodina assembly in the December 1992 provincial election for Sombor's sixth division with a combined endorsement from the DS, the Reform Democratic Party of Vojvodina, and the Democratic Movement of Serbia (Demokratski pokret Srbije, DEPOS). He took his seat when the assembly convened in early 1993.[2][3] The SPS won a majority victory in the election, and Relić served in opposition.

If he was not already a member of the DS when he was elected to the provincial assembly, he soon joined the party and appeared in the ninth position on its electoral list for the Novi Sad division in the 1993 Serbian parliamentary election. The list won four seats, and he did not receive a mandate.[4] (From 1992 to 2000, Serbia's electoral law stipulated that one-third of parliamentary mandates would be assigned to candidates on successful lists in numerical order, while the remaining two-thirds would be distributed amongst other candidates at the discretion of sponsoring parties or coalitions. Relić could have been given a mandate despite his relatively low position on the list, but he was not.)[5]

The DS participated in the 1996 provincial election as part of the Zajedno coalition, and Relić was re-elected under its banner in Sombor's sixth division.[6][7] The SPS again won the election, and Relić continued to serve in opposition.

For the 2000 provincial election, the DS was a leading force in a multi-party coalition called the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Demokratska opozicija Srbije, DOS). The DOS won a landslide majority victory; Relić was again re-elected and this time served as a supporter of the administration.[8] He also served as secretary of the Sombor municipal assembly in this time.

He later left the DS and ran in the 2004 provincial election as the leader of a local coalition of four smaller parties. He was defeated.

Financial scandal

Shortly before the end of his life, Relić was implicated in a scandal involving the disappearance of more than five million dinars from the Sombor municipal budget between 1999 and 2001. He died in 2005 before the case went to trial. A district court verdict in December 2007 found that Relić and two other municipal officials had exceeded their authority to dispose of money from three municipal budget accounts and falsified the signatures of the president and vice-president of the executive board. The core of the scandal involved a series of dubious currency transactions; Relić said in his police interrogation that "the purchase of foreign currency for special purposes" had been done more-or-less openly in the Sombor municipal government. These events occurred at a time of political upheaval in Serbia; at the end of the trial, it was still not known for what purpose the money had been used.[9][10][11]

Electoral record

Provincial (Vojvodina)

2004 Vojvodina assembly election
Sombor I (constituency seat) - First and Second Rounds[12]
Milan Aleksić Democratic Party of Serbia 2,544 18.42 8,851 68.49
Nikola Pejović Serbian Radical Party 2,052 14.86 4,072 31.51
Zlatko Miličević Democratic Party 1,890 13.68
Eržebet Karher Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians 1,654 11.98
Aleksandar Bošnjak G17 Plus 1,461 10.58
Vlado Babić Convention for Sombor 858 6.21
Zvonimir Štrbac Coalition: Together for Vojvodina–Nenad Čanak 687 4.97
Ladislav Fekete Social Democracy 589 4.26
Ivica Frgić Zajedno–Miodrag Sekulić, SPO–NDS 551 3.99
Petar Relić Saka (incumbent) For Truth and Justice, Without Deception–Petar Relić-Saka:
Democratic Party of Vojvodina–Party of Free Patriots–Christian Democratic Party of Serbia–Labour Party of Serbia		 535 3.87
Jozo Ilić Civic Movement of Vojvodina 513 3.71
Zdenka Osterman Strength of Serbia Movement 477 3.45
Total valid votes 13,811 100 12,923 100
Invalid ballots 625 438
Total votes casts 14,436 35.93 13,361 33.25
2000 Vojvodina assembly election
Sombor VI (constituency seat)[13]
Candidate Party or Coalition Result
Petar Relić (incumbent) Democratic Opposition of Serbia (Affiliation: Democratic Party) elected
Sima Kurtešanin Serbian Radical Party
other candidates

National Assembly of Serbia

1990 Serbian parliamentary election
Member for Sombor I[14][15]
Đorđe Burgijašev Union of Reform Forces of Yugoslavia for Vojvodina–Association for the Yugoslav Democratic Initiative–Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina
Etelka Kocsis Democratic Fellowship of Vojvodina Hungarians
Mladen Lazić People's Radical Party–Serbian Saint Sava Party
Dr. Saša Mešterović Serbian Renewal Movement
Baranko Prostran Citizens' Group
Petar Relić Citizens' Group
Spasoje Salatić Citizens' Group
Milan Stepanović Democratic Party
Dr. Josip Subotić Socialist Party of Serbia Elected
Jovan Vujičić Workers' Party of Yugoslavia

References

  1. ↑ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године (Листе кандидата за народне посланике Народне скупштине Републике Србије, по изборним јединицама), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 February 2017.
  2. ↑ Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине на превременим изборима одржаним 20. децембра 1992. године, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 July 2021.
  3. ↑ Saziv 1993 - 1997, Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, accessed 4 March 2022.
  4. ↑ ЗБИРНЕ ИЗБОРНЕ ЛИСТЕ (6 Нови Сад) and Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије, одржаних 19. и 26. децембра 1993. године и 5. јануара 1994. године, Republika Srbija – Republička izborna komisija, accessed 30 July 2021.
  5. ↑ Guide to the Early Election, Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia, December 1992, made available by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, accessed 14 July 2017.
  6. ↑ Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине одржаних 3. и 17. новембра 1996. године, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 5 April 2017.
  7. ↑ Saziv 1997 - 2000, Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, accessed 4 March 2022.
  8. ↑ Saziv 2000-2004, Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, accessed 4 March 2022.
  9. ↑ "Ukrali iz budžeta pet miliona dinara", soinfo.org, 6 December 2007, accessed 4 March 2022.
  10. ↑ "Pljačka somborskog budžeta: Fantomi na demokratskom putu", Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia, 3 September 2008, 4 March 2022.
  11. ↑ Đuro Kukić, "Kad će tačka na pljačku?", Danas, 4 January 2010, accessed 4 March 2022.
  12. ↑ Source: Укупни резултати избора расписаних за 19. септембар 2004. године - већински изборни систем (47 СОМБОР I), Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 18 March 2017.
  13. ↑ Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за посланике у Скупштину Аутономне Покрајине Војводине одржаних 24. септембра и 8. октобра 2000. године, Provincial Election Commission, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia, accessed 29 July 2021; Velika Srbija [Radical Party publication], Volume 11 Number 1201 (Belgrade, September 2000), p. 6.
  14. ↑ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године (Листе кандидата за народне посланике Народне скупштине Републике Србије, по изборним јединицама), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 February 2017.
  15. ↑ Избори за народне посланике Народне скупштине одржани 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године (Извештај о укупним резултатима избора за народне посланике у Народну скупштину Републике Србије 9. и 23. децембра 1990. године), Republika Srbija - Republička izborna komisija, accessed 17 February 2017.
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